the median investor in private companies had to review 80 companies in order to close one transaction

investments sourced through personal and professional networks have been shown to yield better results

in order to train your relationships, it is important that you provide them with simple, clear investing criteria, not lengthy checklists; provide them a narrowly defined niche of interest (“Retail brands with $50M in annual revenues”)

on average it can take 1-2 years between the first meeting with a target CEO sourced through a network and the close of the deal

market mapping, identifying key macro and micro drivers of an industry and creating a database of all key companies; identify those with greatest growth potential or competitive white space

specialization enhances deal origination through deeper knowledge base, ability to add value through enhanced network and likelihood of being top of mind to key deal sources

set up alerts in a blog reader based on key words important to your target or industry focus

“A large portion of my deal flow comes from people I have rejected in the past.” be kind to everyone, even those you don’t do a deal with

consider having a dedicated, SEO-optimized website and blog for your acquisition fund/team that explains what you’re looking for, why, what you bring to the table, etc.; many VCs and most PE investors are not using basic internet marketing techniques (competitive advantage opportunity)

service providers such as accountants, lawyers, etc., are typically not good sources of deal flow because they require too much education and often have a fiduciary responsibility to their client; on the other hand, connecting with service providers in a specialized domain that is being targeted can be a good source of insight

trawl the Q&A portion of sites such as LinkedIn to identify domain experts for further outreach